Article ID: CBB997405424

Brains and Psyches: Child Psychological and Psychiatric Expertise in a Swedish Newspaper, 1980–2008 (2019)

unapi

Most children and families have not had direct contact with child psychological and psychiatric experts. Instead they encounter developmental theories, etiological explanations and depictions of childhood disorders through indirect channels such as newspapers. Drawing on actor–network theory, this article explores two child psychological and psychiatric modes of ordering children’s mental health discernible in Sweden’s largest morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, during the years 1980 to 2008: a psychodynamic mode and a neuro-centered mode. In the article I show how these two relatively contemporaneous modes greatly differed in how they enacted children’s mental health. The psychodynamic mode stressed the parents’ role in structuring and affecting the child’s unconscious and saw them as the primary cause of any mental illness. In contrast, the neuro-centered mode highlighted that mental issues were related to the child’s brain and proposed different solutions depending on whether the child’s brain functioned in a ‘normal’ or ‘atypical’ manner. Each mode moreover suggested differing contexts to their discussions, with the psychodynamic mode solely discussing the parental milieu while the neuro-centered mode mainly focused on how society affected children with ‘atypical’ brains. The two modes thus had significantly diverging implications for the reader on how to understand and manage children and their psychological well-being. I further argue in the article for the relevance of actor–network theory in historical studies of psychology and psychiatry.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB997405424/

Similar Citations

Thesis Felix E. Rietmann; (2018)
Seeing the Infant Audiovisual Technologies and the Mind Sciences of the Child (/isis/citation/CBB857801861/)

Article Carlo Maggini; Riccardo Dalle Luche; (2022)
An overview on Hebephrenia, a diagnostic cornerstone in the neurodevelopmental model of Schizophrenia (/isis/citation/CBB865868388/)

Book Segal, Nancy L.; (2012)
Born Together--Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study (/isis/citation/CBB001320238/)

Article Hirshbein, Laura; Sarvananda, Sharmalie; (2008)
History, Power, and Electricity: American Popular Magazine Accounts of Electroconvulsive Therapy, 1940--2005 (/isis/citation/CBB000774199/)

Book Shuttleworth, Sally; (2010)
The Mind of the Child: Child Development in Literature, Science, and Medicine, 1840--1900 (/isis/citation/CBB001033221/)

Article Frank C. P. van der Horst; Karin Zetterqvist Nelson; Lenny van Rosmalen; René van der Veer; (2020)
A Tale of Four Countries: How Bowlby Used His Trip Through Europe to Write the WHO Report and Spread His Ideas (/isis/citation/CBB078112505/)

Article Peter Skagius; Ann-Charlotte Münger; (2016)
Professional Reinventions: Swedish Psychologists, 1990–2010 (/isis/citation/CBB271607263/)

Article Curtis, Scott; (2011)
“Tangible as Tissue”: Arnold Gesell, Infant Behavior, and Film Analysis (/isis/citation/CBB001034609/)

Article Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen; Cravens, Hamilton; (2006)
G. Stanley Hall's Adolescence: A Centennial Reappraisal: Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB000770153/)

Article Lorch, Marjorie; Hellal, Paula; (2010)
Darwin's “Natural Science of Babies” (/isis/citation/CBB001034935/)

Essay Review Herman, Ellen; (2001)
How Children Turn Out and How Psychology Turns Them Out (/isis/citation/CBB000100117/)

Article Jacob L. Mackey; (2019)
Developmental Psychologies in the Roman World: Change and Continuity (/isis/citation/CBB663112183/)

Article Dick Kasperowski; Niclas Hagen; (June 2022)
Making particularity travel: Trust and citizen science data in Swedish environmental governance (/isis/citation/CBB251191827/)

Article Varga, Donna; (2011)
Look--Normal: The Colonized Child of Developmental Science (/isis/citation/CBB001033717/)

Article Helene Ratner; (2016)
Modern Settlements in Special Needs Education: Segregated Versus Inclusive Education (/isis/citation/CBB214311922/)

Article Nelson, Karin Zetterqvist; Sandin, Bengt; (2013)
Psychodynamics in Child Psychiatry in Sweden, 1945--85: From Political Vision to Treatment Ideology (/isis/citation/CBB001320336/)

Authors & Contributors
Nelson, Karin Zetterqvist
Rietmann, Felix
Luche, Richard Dalle
Münger, Ann-Charlotte
Skagius, Peter
Maggini, Carlo
Concepts
Children
Developmental psychology; pediatrics and psychology
Psychology
Psychiatry
Child development
Mental disorders and diseases
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Ancient
Places
Sweden
United States
Great Britain
Europe
Denmark
Minnesota (U.S.)
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment